June 28, 2012

Less running, more bubble gum apples and rabbit gardens

Workouts: Monday was a rest/driving day. Tuesday, I ran a
five-mile progression run, but I bonked on the last mile and decided to make it
a cool-down mile. My finish time was 39:??. It was really hot and humid
outside, but there was one little spot of rain that felt nice. Then Wednesday
was another rest day. Oops, I didn’t really mean to do that many rest days.

Being on vacation has not meshed well with my running (non)schedule. Because I have four young children and a husband who’s back home
working, it’s almost impossible to find a good time of day to leave the kiddos
at my mom’s house and go running. How do people do this on a regular basis? I
would try waking up early, but my kids wake up if a feather lands on the carpet
beside them. So I’m pretty sure that my clumsy-half-asleep getting dressed in
the dark will wake them up. Did I mention that we’re all sharing a room? Oh,
also I’m not a morning person, so maybe I’m making excuses to not wake up
before dawn. But based on my regularly scheduled Saturday early morning runs,
the slightest creak will wake up my kids.

Also, I don’t want to take up too much time finding a route,
so I end up running through my mom’s small neighborhood a hundred times. I
exaggerate, but one loop really equals .45 miles. The roads just outside of her
neighborhood are really busy with no shoulder, and I’m not really into getting
run over on vacation. All of this is making me sound like a super running wimp.
Seriously, e-friends and especially e-moms, how do you make running work on
vacation?

Today’s fun, a possible fractured foot from a hand weight
being bounced off a trampoline onto a toddler’s foot. We’re in the express care
waiting for an x-ray as I write this.

Other than trying to get admitted into the emergency room, our
other adventures include swimming, swimming and swimming. We like to change it
up. Fun game: how many floaties and noodles can you fit into the pool? Why
would you even get in the pool if you didn’t have every single noodle and
floatie in there already?

Lifeguarding.

Miniature horse farm, anyone? Don’t mind if we do.

As long as it is attached to a miniature rabbit statue garden. Can you tell which ones are fake and which ones are real?

Toddler (meaning from a toddler not to one) tip of the day:
if you get hungry during a photo shoot, just reach down and eat whatever your
hand finds. Rabbit pellets? Sure.

With the healthiest sister who ever existed, it’s been easier to stay on track with feeding the kids (and adults!) a healthy selection.

Here’s the lunch buffet.

It’s nice to feel so great from eating decent foods on
vacation. We easily slip into snack mode on vacation, and when those snacks get
sugary, especially for the kids, we melt down regularly.

Weirdest thing we saw yesterday: a bubble gum flavored
apple. What the? Even though it lists “natural flavorings” as the only added
ingredients, I’m pretty darn sure there’s nothin’ natural about it.

Have you tried flavored apples?

Give me your tips to stay on track with running while on vacation!
I need them pretty desperately.

OH MY WORD why would anyone flavour an apple?? Isn't apple flavour just about perfect? And I hope the foot isn't broken. My little one (2 1/2) hurt his foot badly at Christmas and I was convinced it was broken but the orthopedic doctor (ologist?) said it was virtually impossible for toddlers to break bones, so I hope he was right for you guys.

For planning my runs on holiday, I use mapmyride or mapmyrun to see if anyone else has any good advice, and I've just found runtheplanet.com which had good ideas for Hawaii where we're hopefully off to. Or just try google maps? Or email a local running club?

But yep, it's hard to run on holiday. But it IS a holiday! (Okay, okay, vacation, I'm not from round here).

Oh I hope everything is ok with his foot! The pictures look like lots of fun. The farm picture is so funny because my son Trey who is 10 loves to talk about the farm he want us to buy. Sometimes we will sit for 30 minutes and talk about everything our farm is going to have! So I really loved that pic!

Hope everyone's bones are in one piece. Other than that looks like a great vacation. I have a hard time running on vacation as well. I find walking seems to work better that way I can go with other people. I really love going for walks with my mom when they come to visit.

I'm normally able to stay on track while on vacation, but, I generally do the stay-cation, so it makes things a ton easier. If I were you, I'd just do the 0.45 loop until it drove me bonkers, it's better than nothing!

Since becoming a runner...I haven't taken very many vacations that weren't "race" related. I recently took a week off for my son's graduation but we stayed home and I told everyone I would be sticking to my running schedule. Hope the baby's foot is okay!

I hope that your son's foot is ok! Summertime is not when you want to deal with a child in a cast! :o( Enjoy your vacation, and I hope that you find a route that is a little better than 1000 x round your moms .45 neighbourhood!

My favorite thing to do on vacation is run. It's such a great way to explore a new place. It sounds like you have no place to explore though! I hope you managed to find some place to run and didn't drive yourself crazy with that 1/2 mile loop.